About Katya

Katya is turning eleven in May. She is a spunky little girl who learned the word "no" very well when she was here. She is so affectionate and fun. She called us "mama" and "papa" from the second day she was here and the first time I heard the word "mama", it made my heart skip a beat. She also loved riding her bike and eventually learned to stop at intersections, look both ways, and then proclaim "No cars!". She does not have a shy bone in her body and would convey when she was happy with a sweet smile or loving hug or by pouting or giving us the silent treatment when she was unhappy. She will definately be a handful - we have no illusions about that - but we can't wait until she can come home!

About Sasha

Sasha just turned twelve in April. He is a quiet boy who is very reserved and hard to read but loves riding bikes and playing video games. He is awesome at playing soccer and likes to draw. Although his smile did not come as often as we would have hoped, when he did smile it was contageous! We miss you, Sasha!

As some of you already know, there are problems at the orphanage that Sasha is at. That region of Ukraine is very against international adoptions and are doing everything possible to make it so these children can't be adopted. Therefore, we are in a "waiting game" even more so with Sasha, as we don't know if things will ever improve enough to make it so we can go and get him. This just breaks my heart. The worst thing is that we don't know if he has even gotten any of our letters or packages and the thought of him thinking that we don't want him is almost unbearable...

Our Adoption Adventures

I decided to start this blog so that friends and family could see what is going on in our lives. Since most of you visiting are probably most interested in the adoption happenings, I will start my posting with an update.

Last October, we had two children from two orphanages in the Ukraine come and stay with us. Their names are Sasha and Katya. They, along with about 40 other children from orphanages in the Ukraine, were brought over to Utah by a non-profit organization called "Save a Child Foundation" to stay with families for three weeks. The hope is that these families will fall in love with the kids and want to make them permanent members of their families. Well, although it is hard for someone not in this situation to imagine, we did become very attached to Sasha and Katya. Thus started our adoption adventure, where you have to fill out unimaginable amounts of paperwork, pay lots of money, and wait. We just submitted the last of our paperwork (hopefully!) and are in the "paying lots of money" and "waiting" stages - waiting for the Ukraine government to tell us when we can come.

People ask us all the time why we want to adopt, especially after we just had a little baby. Tony was actually a bit of a surprise and we had decided before he came along that we wanted to adopt. We both feel that we have been fortunate, being raised in loving families, and there are so many children out there that are not so lucky; so we want to give them that chance.